NCsoft's Stites talks Aion anniversary

NCsoft's Lance Stites has weighed in on the one-year anniversary of Aion. Stites, Executive Vice President of Game Operations and Production, has quite a lot to say about the land of Atreia and the eternal war between its winged denizens. From thoughts on the launch-day server queues that were enraging prospective players this time last year, to the free content updates featured in version 1.9 and the more recent Assault on Balaurea, Stites summarizes a year of tweaks in a post over at AionOnline.

In addition to his mini-retrospective, Stites also hints at the future, which includes "new western-specific events, continuing refinement to drop rates and experience, a 64-bit client to make performance better than ever and expanded pet functionality." Finally, he mentions the special one-year anniversary presents available to active players via the in-game survey system, as well as the unique Aqua Griffo pet gifted to loyal subscribers who've stuck with the game since launch.